Helping with Sandy recovery: Teens swap comforts of home for classroom living, volunteer work

Jul. 19, 2013

Boys' and girls' dorms are set up in Monsignor Donovan High School classrooms. / Tom Spader/Staff Photographer

CATHOLIC HEART

Catholic HEART Workcamp program was started in 1993 by Steve and Lisa Walker, at that time they were both youth ministers at St. Margaret Mary Church in Winter Park, Fla. The first Catholic HEART Workcamp was held in Orlando with 100 participants as an extension of St. Margaret Mary Youth Ministry. In 2012, the camp had more than 12,500 campers at 47 camps across the country and in Jamaica, according to the program’s website.

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TOMS RIVER — Thomas Curivan could be home sleeping in his own bed and enjoying a relaxing summer. Instead the 17-year-old Cedar Grove resident has spent the last week sleeping on an air mattress in a classroom at Monsignor Donovan High School.

Curivan is one of the approximately 280 teenagers who have swapped the comforts of home for the school this week to help rebuild the superstorm Sandy-ravaged area.

“It’s good to help the people of your state,” Curivan said Thursday. “It has been an uplifting experience. It’s a lot better than sitting home and being on the couch.”

The teenagers are volunteering and staying at the school this week as part of the Catholic HEART Workcamp program. Catholic HEART Workcamp is a faith-based group in Orlando that sponsors approximately 50 camps a year around the country, said Kim Westerman, manager at the camp. The teenagers represent 14 youth groups from as far south as North Carolina to as far west as Ohio. Watch the video above to learn more about the program.

Since Sandy made landfall Oct. 29, various volunteer organizations have converged on Monmouth and Ocean counties — including Catholic HEART in Toms River, World Changers in Neptune and Jersey Shore Workcamp in Monmouth County. These religious-based organizations recruit teenagers who are now living in Shore-area schools while lending a hand to residents who are rebuilding after the historic storm.

During their trips to the area, the groups have assisted residents with painting, repairing damaged roofing, building handicap-accessible ramps, and moving sand.

After superstorm Sandy hit, camp chaperon Brian Angell knew he wanted to create a camp in Toms River to help with the area’s recovery.

“When I saw the devastation in the Toms River and the Seaside areas, I called the CEO of the camp and asked if he was going to do a camp for this area,” said Angell, 55, of Lake George, N.Y. “He said he did not have any contacts. After that I started making phone calls to put this all together. It’s a dream come true.”

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Every morning, campers gather in the school’s cafeteria for breakfast and then head to the school’s gym to meet and discuss the plan for the day. After the meeting, 41 groups, comprised of six or seven students each, head out to Seaside Heights, Toms River, Ocean Gate and other storm-impacted areas and assist with recovery efforts.

“We go into an area and the students sleep on air mattresses on the floors and then they go out and work in the community during the day,” said Kim Westerman, manager at the camp.

It’s a similar routine along the northern shore of Monmouth County, where students are sleeping at Keansburg High School at night, while working on homes during the day. The group pays a blanket contract with the districts they visit to pay for the space, custodial services and district food services staff who prepare the kids’ meals, said Gail Bechtoldt, co-sponsor of the Jersey Shore Workcamp program.

In Middletown, three teenagers worked together to fix a deck that had been destroyed by Sandy — it turned out that they would rebuild it from scratch.

“It’s life-changing,” said Tyler Doran, 15 of Elbertea, Minn. “You never realize how bad the devastation is, and how close you can get to people that you meet and work with. I just met these guys Monday and I could tell them anything — I’m so glad I met them.”

The teens were here as part of the 918 volunteers from all over the country who signed up this year for the Jersey Shore Workcamp program, a non-denominational Christian home repair mission project that helps households in need up and down the coast. It is affiliated with a national program called Group Mission Trips, which co-sponsors the workcamps.

“It’s been really fun,” said Meghan Cole, 14, of Mason, Ohio. “My favorite part was working on-site because it gave me the opportunity to really help someone. We’re really changing people’s lives.”

William Becktholdt, 65, of Hazlet is co-sponsor of the Jersey Shore Workcamps, along with his wife, Gail. They had been youth group leaders at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Hazlet for years when they started the program in 1998, and they launched their first repair projects in 2000.

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According to Becktholdt — who is referred to by campers as “Mr. B.” — the program is divided into two camps, each of which lasts one week. Both camps are hosted by Keansburg High School: Students sleep on the floor of classrooms and wash up in communal showers. They are segregated by gender and age, Becktholdt says.

The work is spread out across some 70 sites, with crews of three to six teens and one to two adults each. Many of the sites are homes that were damaged by Sandy.

“All told, by the end of this week, our little foundation will have been in 400 homes since the storm,” Becktholdt said.

For many residents in need, the volunteers are a godsend. Gretchen Marcell of Middletown — whose daughter has an undiagnosed neuromuscular disease and whose home was fitted with a wheelchair ramp by campers — had nothing but praise.

“They’ve done a great job, and it’s such a wonderful, generous thing they’re doing for our family,” Marcell said.

Walter Johnson, 74, of Middletown had volunteers do badly needed scraping and painting work on the exterior of his house. He found the quality of the work exceeded his expectations.

“The agreement I signed said this is volunteer work, not professional work. I take exception to that!” Johnson said. “These volunteers do a real tremendous job.”

Last week, World Changers, a Tennessee-based religious organization, sent roughly 600 students to Neptune. They completed various home improvement projects during the day, such as replacing the superstorm-Sandy damaged roof of one municipal homeowner, while sleeping in the high school at night.

This summer actually marked the seventh straight year that World Changers, a ministry of Lifeway Christian Resources that seeks to improve substandard housing in North American cities, sent students to Neptune. World Changers is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and provides students with a chance to live their faith by serving in the community, said Kaitlyn Lahm, a spokeswoman for the organization.

“Neptune was chosen for disaster relief because of Sandy,” she said. “Lifeway identifies the cities that would benefit the most from World Changers. If the need diminishes in one area, then that project may be replaced by another area where the need is greater.”

But for the teen volunteers, the location isn’t as important as the opportunity to help out.

Wendy Estavien, 17, of Bridgeport, Conn., said she was looking for a change when she signed up for the camp.

“This is my first year doing it and thought that it would be a change,” Estavien said as she ate breakfast at Monsignor Donovan. “When I heard that we were helping out people affected by Sandy, I was excited to help out.”

Estavien said that she has been blown away by the resilience of the area’s residents.

“It makes you keep going,” said Estavien. “Some of the people have lost everything and they keep going, not matter what.”